Our volunteer teams have been busy both on and off the coast over the past few weeks, attending community events and raising vital funds to support marine mammal rescue across the UK.
The Kent team has put in an incredible effort, fundraising at multiple events over three weekends and raising just short of £1,500. As well as collecting donations, the team spoke to hundreds of people about BDMLR’s work, shared advice on helping marine mammals and explained how the public can support animals in distress.
Teams elsewhere have also been out in force, with Suffolk raising £1,400 at Aldeburgh 3 day Carnival, Yorkshire Medics raising over £700 at the Withernsea Blue Light Festival, Lincolnshire attended Whale of a Day in Sutton-on-Sea and the Coastal Services Day, Northumberland volunteers raised funds at St Mary’s, and BDMLR was also represented at Wonders of Wildlife at Lepe Country Park in Hampshire — alongside many other regional teams attending similar events across the UK.
Even with these incredible efforts, fundraising is an ongoing and essential part of keeping our rescue response running. Every single donation helps provide specialist equipment, practical training and the resources our volunteer Medics need to respond when a seal, dolphin or whale is in distress. Community events are also an important opportunity for our volunteers to speak directly with the public. The conversations our teams have about advice and their experiences can help future incidents to be reported sooner, prevent unecessary disturbance and give more people the confidence to know what to do if they find marine mammals on our coastlines.
A huge thank you to every volunteer who has organised, attended or supported an event, and to everyone who stopped to speak to our teams or donated towards our work. Your interest and generosity make every day spent championing BDMLR’s work worthwhile. The commitment shown by Kent and teams across the UK makes a genuine difference to our work.
It’s also not too late to donate if you missed us at the events, we appreciate donations at any time via our website and joining BDMLR Ocean Allies is another fantastic way to support our work with little donations that make an enormous difference.
